In late July, Kazakhstan’s capital hosted the sixth subcommittee meeting on trade and economic relations of the Kazakhstan-China Cooperation Committee. The Committee was established in May 2004 in order to deepen the bilateral relationship and reinforce the ever growing strategic partnership between Astana and Beijing. On this occasion, the deputy minister of external trade of the People’s Republic of China Jiang Yaopin, who headed the Chinese delegation, requested the Kazakh Government to simplify entry procedures for Chinese nationals who wish to work on Kazakhstan’s territory.

According to Yaopin, the simplification of border procedures and the cancellation of several visa requirements that Chinese businesses consider unjustly severe could further boost the development of bilateral trade and investment relations in the context of increasingly deep contacts between the two countries. The Chinese Ministry of external trade referred in its official request to a certain number of complaints filed by Chinese employers and hired workers who had allegedly encountered “complicated and lengthy administrative procedures and excessively high fees for entry visas and work permits.” The Chinese side also reminded its Kazakh interlocutors that this situation “could negatively impact the implementation of joint projects,” including those mostly funded from Chinese sources in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector.

In support of this request, Chinese officials once again confirmed their full respect of the existing legislation regarding the employment of foreign nationals and their legal stay in Kazakhstan as well as local labor practices and traditions. Speaking on behalf of the Kazakh Ministry of economic development and trade, the deputy minister Timur Zhaksylykov admitted that the visa issue had already been raised several times in the course of bilateral discussions and had still to be resolved at the ministerial level.

Currently, Kazakhstan and China are negotiating the conclusion of a bilateral agreement regulating the status of Chinese citizens employed for construction and other investment projects on Kazakh territory. While the latest round of talks was held in May 2012, many legal issues are still being discussed by technical experts and will be raised once again in the coming fall. The Kazakh Ministry of foreign affairs has recently announced that it will use an already concluded agreement between China and the Russian Federation as a basis for its future contacts with various ministries in Beijing. Chinese officials frequently recall that both countries’ political leaders have agreed to increase the level of bilateral trade up to US$ 40 billion by 2015, compared to US$ 20 billion in 2010, which will automatically require a higher number of contractual workers.

According to the National Economic Chamber Soyuz Atameken comprised of Kazakhstan’s biggest enterprises, it is currently expected that more than 6,000 additional Chinese nationals will arrive in Kazakhstan by 2014. Their skills will be used in the framework of 11 high-scale industrial projects, including the construction of two pipelines connecting Kazakhstan to China as well as the upgrading of a gas facility near Zhanazhol on the Caspian Sea. In response to those critics of the Government who are asking for a larger share of Kazakhstan-trained employees in the operation of energy businesses, authorities refer to the lack of qualified workers and the subsequent need of substitution by foreign nationals.

Meanwhile, the issue of illegal migration has become particularly acute in some of Kazakhstan’s most attractive local labor markets, such as its southern former capital, the city of Almaty. Recently, the prosecutor’s office of the Almaty region uncovered the illegal stay of 2,000 Chinese nationals as well as 130 citizens of Pakistan. According to official statistics, Almaty has always been the favorite destination of migrant workers. At the same time, the number of Kazakh citizens relocating to Almaty in search of higher incomes amounted to 72,000 cases last year, while the number of foreigners arriving on supposedly legal grounds was almost 190,000 persons. The presence of Chinese migrants turns out to be considerable as compared to all other nationalities, especially in the west, where dozens of energy projects are still ongoing, and the south, due to a relatively stable demand for agricultural workers.

In this context, anti-Chinese sentiments seem to gain speed, especially in those regions most heavily exposed to massive migration from China’s western provinces, including Xinjiang. The December 2011 unrest in Zhanaozen also revealed widespread fears about Chinese immigration: one of the grievances expressed by protesting oil workers was the exclusive presence of managers from China in their companies’ top-tier administrative divisions. The fact that Chinese professionals now serve on advisory and management boards in Kazakhstan’s largest energy producers reflects the recent change in the character of migration: together with ordinary workers entrusted with manual tasks, Kazakhstan is more actively “importing” highly qualified industry experts from its eastern neighbor.